Christian Gifts

‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two precepts hang all the law and the prophets’ (Mathew 22.37, 38, 39, 40). ‘By this all men know that they are my disciples, if ye have love one to another’ (John 13.35) …’He who loveth God loveth his brother also’ (1 John 4.21) …’If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar’ (1 John 4.20) …The first thing that takes our attention is the saying of Jesus, ‘Thou shalt love,’ etc. (501-2)

Yet only in Matthew does Peter have a role in the story. Upon seeing Jesus on the water, he calls out, "'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water'"(Mt. 14.28). He almost succeeds, yet he suddenly gives in to fear and begins sinking. Jesus scolds him by saying, " 'You of little faith, why do you doubt?'"(14.31). This draws a strange picture of Peter. He no longer simply listens to Jesus, but tries to become actively involved in his teacher's lessons. This idea is again shown in Matthew 15.15. After the parable of the blind leading the blind, Peter asks, " "Explain this parable to us." Jesus replies with a rather impatient remark, but dives a little further into the meaning. He often comes to Jesus with questions throughout Matthew and these questions always ask for clear definitions of stories or truths about some spiritual detail. Many times Jesus snaps a little at him, but Peter obviously is not swayed by any impatience his teacher bestows. This seems to paint a closer relationship between the two men, where Peter is not afraid of Jesus and Jesus is not simply polite to Peter, as teachers tend to be. Jesus' obvious favoritism of Peter, shown in the transfiguration and throughout the gospel, leads one to believe that the two are indeed close friends with trust and mutual respect, which allows them to be freer with their words to one another. Friends tend to be less polite and more open with

voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice’. Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.”

From an hour of watching TV, you may see two commercials telling you to embrace yourself. Society teaches us to embrace who we are and dress how we want to be expressed. Yet, there is an equally influential part of society that teaches us to suppress certain aspects of our lives. So where do we, as people, stand on this complicated issue? Do we express only the good parts of ourselves and hide all the negative parts, or can we do more and express both the positive and negative aspects of our lives. No matter what you choose to believe you too can relate to the Bible salesman. People either choose to show what they believe in or choose to hide what they truly prioritize.

that he would only die if it was his time to go, believing that if he was meant to die, he

Conflict is opposing actions, ideas, and decisions that hold a plot together. Clugston (2014) states “Conflict is the struggle that shapes the plot in a story” (4.1 Plot, para. 4). Conflicts are also encountered in most of the literature we read for pleasure. It can create personal connections and instill deeper meanings to our experiences as we read, especially if we can relate what is read to our personal life.

No emotion has such universal meaning as love. It is an integral part of the human condition. Love is the basis for by which all other emotions can be gauged. Friendship and even grief are steeped in love. Love is so central to our lives that it is fitting and proper that it should be the topic of so much discussion. Every culture and every writer has some commentary or evaluation of love. The New Testament has its share of love commentary. The entire basis of the Christian tradition is God's love for humanity. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." (John 3:6) Jesus preached a great deal about love of neighbor, love of God and even love of enemies. (Matt 5:44) Shakespeare's Biblical knowledge is well known and he

In verse two we can find the second half of the conditional statement of Paul which was given. The means of fulfilling this command is then given in four clauses which emphasize unity by synonymous expressions.7 The way in which the Philippians can “fulfil” Paul’s joy is by having “the same mind”, “the same love”, being “one

Thesis: It is the intent of this paper to dig into the life of Peter and see just who this man that passionately followed Christ was. As we dig into the life of Peter we will examine his character strengths, his weaknesses, and overall how Peter was transformed by Christ. We will see how God took a man who more often than not acted without thinking and transformed him into a passionate follower who’s words we read today in God’s very words to us.

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In a way loving Christ “agape” is like surrendering to Christ and loving Christ “philios” is a type of brotherly love. Love is the mark of a true believer and Peter learned the hard way what it means to love Christ. He has to declare his unfailing devotion to Jesus more than once and this frustrates him because he doesn’t understand why Jesus is testing him. After Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, Peter is later asked if he’s one of Jesus’ disciples and he denies it three times. I connect to this story because one day my faith is going to be tested and I can only hope that I make the right choice, and if I don’t I can only hope for forgiveness, the same way Peter had his reconciliation through Jesus’ forgiveness, despite his denial. For example during the Columbine school shooting a girl had a gun held to her head and was asked “do you believe in God”, she knew that if she said no she would get to live, but she said “yes, I do believe in God” and was killed. Peter was put in a similar situation that the girl was in, but no gun was held to his head, and he still denied Jesus. I can only hope that I could be as brave as that girl when it comes to my

In Greek the word love has many different meanings. They had four words to describe the series of meaning that our English word love conveys. The three forms consist of agape, phileo, storge, and eros. Agape love is an unconditional love or is defined as the “self-sacrificing love.” Phileo love is an affectionate or a friendship type of love. Sorage love is a kind of family or parental love, similar to unconditional love. Eros love is often used to express sexual love that is mutual between people who are

He says that believing in Jesus Christ during this time of suffering, will show great obedience. Therefore, he reminds us to be holy and love each other deeply because we were purchased with a very high price, the precious blood of the lamb. 1st Peter chapter 2 starts off by showing how we are being built into a “spiritual house” with the Lord Jesus as our cornerstone. I recently went to a church camp where I learned a Hebrew word. The word “Ayil” means “the strong ones.” The book of Peter explains that Jesus is our Ayil, but each one of us are also Ayils when we follow him. This is because people look up to believers as “the strong ones” and strive to be like them the same way that believers strive to be like Jesus. Peter exclaims, “we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people belonging to God.” (vs. 9, chapter 2). In 1st Peter chapter 4 he elaborates that we should be using whatever special talents that God has given us to serve each other at all times. This would include, not being selfish with our abilities as well as mocking others for what abilities they do or don’t have because everyone has been given special abilities by God for a specific purpose, but all abilities should be used to serve

The way we live our conduct shows how we are and whom we are. There are some who conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. Their lives, they only thanks on earthly things, and shameful things, and they are headed for destruction. But we are waiting for the Lord return so we may go to our heavenly home. When the Lord come, he will take our weakness and change them into glory.

Once we recognize God’s true love for us and see the need of looking to Christ to change our hearts rather than trying to do it on our own, we see our need of repentance, which involves a change of direction, turning our back on previous intentions and actions, and seeking new direction in life. Instead of making excuses, blaming circumstances or others, repentance means taking full responsibility. King David, after committing murder and adultery appealed to Christ: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalms 51:10). He accepted his guilt and asked for a new direction – from Christ.